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interview for a music producer
- Thread starter D_WEV
- Start date
P
puffedoutproductions
Guest
Posting the questions would have been nice...
sweet....theres 10 of 'em...so here's 1-5
1. What made you want to become a music producer?
2. What classes did you take in college?
3. Do you have an accountant help you with your finances?
4. What are your salary expectations as a music producer?
5. How many recordng artist do you have to listen to on a weekly/daily basis?
here are 6-10
6. What is the biggest struggle as a producer?
7. What kind of marketing is involved in music production?
8. What or who is your biggest accomplishment as a producer?
9. What university would you suggest for someone interested in the business?
10. What internships would you recommend as an incoming producer?
1. What made you want to become a music producer?
2. What classes did you take in college?
3. Do you have an accountant help you with your finances?
4. What are your salary expectations as a music producer?
5. How many recordng artist do you have to listen to on a weekly/daily basis?
here are 6-10
6. What is the biggest struggle as a producer?
7. What kind of marketing is involved in music production?
8. What or who is your biggest accomplishment as a producer?
9. What university would you suggest for someone interested in the business?
10. What internships would you recommend as an incoming producer?
Last edited:
smartipants
New member
So Cal Music Producer Answers 10 Questions Post
Yep I will answer them.
1. I recorded and produced a song in the studio in college for a class project when I was 19. My voice sounded totally different on the mic than it did live (better!) and I loved the process of creating the song. I was hooked and wanted to become a music producer. Also had a college internship with a music company in Chicago and watched amazing composer/producers work in the studio every day.
2. I designed my own degree program at Northwestern University's School of Music. I took traditional music classes -- music theory, music history, orchestration, along with advertising, journalism and communication classes and some "psycho acoustics" (why and how we hear things as we do). Also music business. The internship was the most useful.
3. I have always had an accountant file my taxes for me, both when working for an employer and as a self employed person with my own music business (last 25 years). But I have always done my own budgeting, reconciling, paying talent etc. I use Quicken software.
4. Haha this is a joke right??! Seriously, I don't think I ever had salary expectations. I just knew that this was what I wanted to do and I loved it. There have been times when I've done fairly well financially and others when I had to have a part-time consulting job to support myself when I wasn't making enough as a music producer. I'm pretty happy that I can make a decent living now doing music full-time with a combination of passive income (royalties) and 1099 contractor income, and I have the flexibility being self employed to reduce my work to part time when I want or need to.
5. Varies from week to week. I listen to some artists for pleasure, listen to other artists to study their work or production techniques, and listen to other artists with whom I'm working in the scope of our projects together.
6. Balancing the projects that I REALLY want to do with super talented indie artists who are self funding (read: little budget) with projects that may be less satisfying artistically but pay the bills well. It takes a mixture of both to survive without going crazy!
7. It's constant. Every piece of work I do and everyone I talk to or work with is an advertisement for my work as a music producer. I have spent time and money on a website with regular updates that showcases my work and shows a little bit about how I do what I do. I'm always thinking about how I can be of service to people in the music industry in a unique way and that's helped me carve out a unique niche. My part time consulting job in PR was eye opening: I learned how to really market other people and for the first time started treating myself and my music work like a PR client. I try to be objective and present myself like I would another client.
8. The two projects that I'm most proud of are a TV spot I produced the music for with vocals by The Muppets -- I got to produce the vocal session along with the director (childhood dream to work on music for The Muppets!) and the second is an original piece of music I wrote, arranged and produced in the Gypsy Swing Style of Django Reinhardt -- in French! -- that was placed in a EA Games video game "The Saboteur." The music is very retro, takes place in a WW II Paris nightclub, and I had many young gamers contact me because of the song, telling me that this had introduced them to a whole new genre of
music they'd never heard before. I've also had people track me down on the Internet from as far away as India because they heard a song I've written and produced on Internet radio that they loved and wanted to tell me about it. International friends through music is pretty awesome.
9. I'd recommend a college or University where you can take solid traditional music courses, as well as music business, music technology, audio engineering and songwriting classes. Strongly suggest a school near a major urban city like New York, LA, Chicago or Nashville because of the access to industry professionals and internships.
10. Find a business that is well respected and has a great track record at what they do ... a record label, a music publishing company, a music supervisor, a film score composer etc and be willing to do ANYTHING to help them and get your foot in the door. Keep your mouth shut and your ears open, look for opportunities to make your bosses lives easier and to make yourself indispensable. Keep doing that and at the same time work hard to improve your skills and learn everything you can. Learn to play as many instruments as you can. Listen to all kinds of music (even ones you don't initially like) and get curious about how different styles of music are put together. If you really want to do this, be willing to go the long haul and not give up.
Yep I will answer them.
1. I recorded and produced a song in the studio in college for a class project when I was 19. My voice sounded totally different on the mic than it did live (better!) and I loved the process of creating the song. I was hooked and wanted to become a music producer. Also had a college internship with a music company in Chicago and watched amazing composer/producers work in the studio every day.
2. I designed my own degree program at Northwestern University's School of Music. I took traditional music classes -- music theory, music history, orchestration, along with advertising, journalism and communication classes and some "psycho acoustics" (why and how we hear things as we do). Also music business. The internship was the most useful.
3. I have always had an accountant file my taxes for me, both when working for an employer and as a self employed person with my own music business (last 25 years). But I have always done my own budgeting, reconciling, paying talent etc. I use Quicken software.
4. Haha this is a joke right??! Seriously, I don't think I ever had salary expectations. I just knew that this was what I wanted to do and I loved it. There have been times when I've done fairly well financially and others when I had to have a part-time consulting job to support myself when I wasn't making enough as a music producer. I'm pretty happy that I can make a decent living now doing music full-time with a combination of passive income (royalties) and 1099 contractor income, and I have the flexibility being self employed to reduce my work to part time when I want or need to.
5. Varies from week to week. I listen to some artists for pleasure, listen to other artists to study their work or production techniques, and listen to other artists with whom I'm working in the scope of our projects together.
6. Balancing the projects that I REALLY want to do with super talented indie artists who are self funding (read: little budget) with projects that may be less satisfying artistically but pay the bills well. It takes a mixture of both to survive without going crazy!
7. It's constant. Every piece of work I do and everyone I talk to or work with is an advertisement for my work as a music producer. I have spent time and money on a website with regular updates that showcases my work and shows a little bit about how I do what I do. I'm always thinking about how I can be of service to people in the music industry in a unique way and that's helped me carve out a unique niche. My part time consulting job in PR was eye opening: I learned how to really market other people and for the first time started treating myself and my music work like a PR client. I try to be objective and present myself like I would another client.
8. The two projects that I'm most proud of are a TV spot I produced the music for with vocals by The Muppets -- I got to produce the vocal session along with the director (childhood dream to work on music for The Muppets!) and the second is an original piece of music I wrote, arranged and produced in the Gypsy Swing Style of Django Reinhardt -- in French! -- that was placed in a EA Games video game "The Saboteur." The music is very retro, takes place in a WW II Paris nightclub, and I had many young gamers contact me because of the song, telling me that this had introduced them to a whole new genre of
music they'd never heard before. I've also had people track me down on the Internet from as far away as India because they heard a song I've written and produced on Internet radio that they loved and wanted to tell me about it. International friends through music is pretty awesome.
9. I'd recommend a college or University where you can take solid traditional music courses, as well as music business, music technology, audio engineering and songwriting classes. Strongly suggest a school near a major urban city like New York, LA, Chicago or Nashville because of the access to industry professionals and internships.
10. Find a business that is well respected and has a great track record at what they do ... a record label, a music publishing company, a music supervisor, a film score composer etc and be willing to do ANYTHING to help them and get your foot in the door. Keep your mouth shut and your ears open, look for opportunities to make your bosses lives easier and to make yourself indispensable. Keep doing that and at the same time work hard to improve your skills and learn everything you can. Learn to play as many instruments as you can. Listen to all kinds of music (even ones you don't initially like) and get curious about how different styles of music are put together. If you really want to do this, be willing to go the long haul and not give up.